Bielski Otriad

The Bielski Otriad was an independent armed brigade of Jewish refugees which waged a war of resistance against Nazi Germany during World War II from 1941 to 1945. Led by the brothers Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski, the partisan group raided local farms to collect supplies, occasionally ambushed Wehrmacht forces, and freed Jews from ghettoes. The otriad would save 1,200 Jews, and they would hide in the Lipczanska Forest and the Naliboka Forest, forming a refugee community which would build a school, nursery, and houses to restore a semblance of regular life. In late 1941, Zus Bielski left the otriad with a few other partisans in order to join the Soviet October Otriad, as Zus disagreed with Tuvia's strategy of outlasting the Germans, favoring guerrilla warfare. However, Zus Bielski and his comrades would return to fight off a German assault on the Naliboka Forest in April 1942, and the Jewish refugees would continue to live in the forest. The Bielski partisans would be accused of murdering 128 Poles in the Naliboki Forest on 8 May 1943, but some would blame other Soviet partisans. After the war, many of the Jewish refugees would emigrate to Israel, the United States, or other western countries, and the descendants of the refugees now number in the tens of thousands.